Boxing: Perez faces well-traveled Montemayor in his return to the ring

Boxing: Abraham Perez vs. Jose Rodriguez Montemayor, Fidel Maldonado Jr. vs. German Ivan Meraz, several other bouts. Embassy Suites,6:30 p.m. Tickets: $45-$85. Call 505-877-5725.

Have gloves, will travel: if professional boxer Jose Rodriguez Montemayor doesn’t have a business card with that inscription, he should.

Montemayor, a native of Piedras Negras in the Mexican state of Coahuila, now lives in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. As a professional boxer, he has fought three times in his native Mexico, once in Honduras, once in New Jersey, once in Pennsylvania, once in Utah, once in Arizona, four times in California and four times in his adopted home state of Wisconsin.

Now, Montemayor (7-9, six knockouts) is adding a New Mexico sticker to his steamer trunk (we don’t actually know if he has a steamer trunk). He’s matched against Albuquerque’s Abraham Perez (10-0, five KOs) on Saturday in the main event of a Legacy Promotions card at the Embassy Suites.

Perez’s boxing journey has been no less interesting, perhaps more so. Though all 10 of his pro fights have taken place in his home state, his highly successful amateur career took him to France, Spain and Bulgaria.

The journey of far more consequence, though, is Perez’s road back from an August near-drowning incident that almost cost him his life. Some 13 months after his last bout, the 25-year-old said at Friday’s weigh-in he’s more eager than nervous as fight time approaches.

“It’s still kind of normal for me,” he said. “It feels like it’s about time I’m back here, because going a year without fighting felt very, like different in a way. It was unorthodox for me to just not fight at all.

“The fact that I’m back here, it’s right where I want to be and need to be.”

If there’s rust that needs knocking off, Perez won’t be alone in that regard. His most recent fight took place on March 23, 2024; Montemayor’s last fight occurred a week before that in Stockton, California.

Montemayor, as well, is a late replacement for Perez’s original opponent. Even so, he said, he has come in quest of more than a sticker for the steamer trunk. He’d been training for another fight when he got the call from Legacy.

“I’m ready,” he said. “I come to make a good fight. I feel strong, you’ll see.”

Montemayor’s record is remarkable in that only one of his 16 fights has gone to the scorecards; six of his victories and all nine of his defeats have come via knockout.

That’s largely a product, he said, of fighting on his opponent’s home turf — which is the case once again — and not really wanting the fight to go to the judges.

Defense? No time for that.

“This fight isn’t going (the scheduled) eight rounds,” he said. “This fight is finished early. Him or me, but early.”

Montemayor weighed in on Friday at 115 pounds, three pounds over flyweight limit of 112. Ed Manzanares, chairman of the New Mexico Athletic Commission, said that because of the short notice — Montemayor arrived in Albuquerque on Friday — he’d be granted extra time to shed the excess pounds.

Perez, who weighed in at 111.6 pounds, said he wasn’t overly concerned about the weight issue.

A weight issue canceled one scheduled bout. Albuquerque’s Jordanne Garcia weighed in 10 pounds over the contracted weight for her super middleweight (168-pound) bout against Chicago’s Olivia Curry, and the fight will not happen.